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Moblin: a First Look at Intel's Open-Source OS
PC World ^ | Thursday, July 02, 2009 5:35 AM PDT | Keir Thomas

Posted on 07/15/2009 11:54:53 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

Moblin is an Intel-created open-source operating system for netbooks and, specifically, the kind of people who use them.

On a technical level this means Moblin is built for the Atom x86 chip found in many netbooks, while on a practical level it means Moblin is an Internet- and multimedia-focused operating system. Moblin is less about knocking-up spreadsheets on the move and more about twittering, updating your Facebook account, and watching movies on the go.

Fundamentally, Moblin is just another distribution of Linux (based on Fedora), although it's one that benefits from some unique tweaks and a radical user-interface. However, traditional apps take a back seat, and some you might expect are missing (there's no GIMP or OpenOffice.org, for example). Moblin is based on the familiar GNOME/GTK desktop, like distros such as Ubuntu, but this is largely invisible because of the UI improvements.

Any offline functionality tends to be geared around playing movies or music, so you can keep up with The Wire or Britney's latest while out of range of a wifi base station.

Moblin is open source, and free of charge, so you can download and try it yourself. Like most of Intel's mainstream processors, the Atom is essentially an x86 chip, so you should be able to run Moblin on any computer, or in a virtualised environment. However, it requires 3D graphics drivers so is far from optimal in VMware or VirtualBox, and is also optimised for low-resolution widescreen displays. Additionally, its hardware support is deliberately limited to what is usually found in netbook computers.

The first beta of Moblin v2.0 has just been released, and I decided to take a play with it.

(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: chrome; cloudcomputing; intel; moblin
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To: VeniVidiVici

Try this: Open a teminal and issue the following command...

sudo apt-get install (nameofapplication)

ex: sudo apt-get install tuxmath

(it’s a 741k math game for kids)


21 posted on 07/15/2009 4:38:39 PM PDT by papasmurf (Save us from 0bama, I prayed. Then I heard, "the 2nd, I saved")
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; SunkenCiv
LOL... 'Some' of us go back a little further than that...   

 

 

22 posted on 07/15/2009 8:21:57 PM PDT by Seadog Bytes (OPM - The Liberal 'solution' to every societal problem. (Other People's Money))
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; papasmurf
How could that be....?

Sorry. Let me elaborate. It seemed impossible to install any additional programs other than those available to the distribution.

Next time I throw Ubuntu on there, I'll give PapaSmurf's suggestion a try. I bought it to run Delorme's Topographic software w/GPS add-on, so I swapped a trimmed down version of WinXP onto it

23 posted on 07/15/2009 11:27:14 PM PDT by VeniVidiVici (ABC-AP-MSNBC-All Obama, All the time.)
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To: Seadog Bytes
TITLE

24 posted on 07/16/2009 6:57:43 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: Vroomfondel

Oh, yeah. [blush]


25 posted on 07/16/2009 7:06:54 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: SunkenCiv; Ernest_at_the_Beach; martin_fierro
LOL... Better GRAB a copy while you can!!!


26 posted on 07/17/2009 2:04:52 PM PDT by Seadog Bytes (OPM - The Liberal 'solution' to every societal problem. (Other People's Money))
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To: Seadog Bytes

I have a feelin’ this OS is older than water... ;’) Thanks SB.


27 posted on 07/17/2009 6:35:12 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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